If you have never listened to Sister Miriam James Heidland on YouTube, I encourage you to do so. She is a compassionate and effective speaker who has a message of God’s love and healing. Sister Miriam has introduced me to a very insightful phrase about the human condition: sorrowful mysteries.
Sorrowful mysteries are those experiences and hurts that humans hide away, hoping they will eventually go away. Like a cracked vase, they leak out through sleepless nights, addictions, anger issues, and more.
No one wrote a rule book for God and told Him how to act toward His creation. His love compels Him to enter into our sorrow and know firsthand the sorrowful mysteries we all encounter.
Most of us will never grace the cover of “Sports Illustrated,” “People,” or other popular magazines. We will not be the beautiful, wealthy, and powerful people who are featured in the latest social media craze.
Not only is Jesus well acquainted with our sorrowful mysteries, He knows what it means to be disfigured and unattractive.
See, my servant shall prosper;
he shall be exalted and lifted up
and shall be very high.Just as there were many who were astonished at him
—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of mortals—So he shall startle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which had not been told them they shall see,
and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate. (Isaiah 52:13-15)
Someone says, “Wait a minute. Doesn’t verse 13 speak of being exalted and lifted up?”
When Jesus spoke of being glorified and highly lifted up, He turned the meaning upside down.
Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. (John 12:23-24, 32-33)
I once visited a man in the hospital who had been ambushed with a piece of pipe and later had a concrete block slammed on his head. I met him after the medical staff had cleaned him up, but he was still a horrific sight.
Imagine Jesus on the cross. On the days when you feel ugly, invisible, and worthless, remember that Jesus knows what you feel—and more.
God Reveals His Might
Rudy Ross frequently reminds us when we produce YouTube videos together that the cross revealed the strength of Jesus. As the agent of Creation, Jesus could have called upon the angels and ended civilization, only to begin again.
Instead of using His strength to destroy and conquer, Jesus used His power to suffer, die, and win the hearts of humanity. He did so by identifying with all of us in our ugliness, sorrowful mysteries, sin, and death.
Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?For he grew up before him like a young plant
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity,
and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account. (Isaiah 53:1-3)
E. Stanley Jones was possibly the most famous Methodist missionary to India in the last century. Once when he visited the Holy Land, Jones received permission to spend the night in the Garden of Gethsemane during Holy Week.
He spent the night meditating on what Jesus experienced in the Garden, on trial, being beaten, humiliated, and crucified. God used that time to do a deeper work in the life of an already remarkable servant of the Lord.
I haven’t spent a night like Jones did, but I have given a considerable amount of time to thinking and praying about what Jesus went through. Those have been pivotal moments in my life with the Lord.
A good place to start contemplating the love of our Lord is Isaiah 52–53.
We can confidently come to Jesus, because He knows every aspect of our situation. We can unveil our sorrowful mysteries, because He experienced being a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity.
If we feel invisible in this world, know that He was despised. To be despised is different from being hated. Our Savior’s personhood was overlooked, ignored, and viewed as less than.
He willingly took this stance, so He can be our healer, Savior, and friend.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed this passage on YouTube today.
Real Voices 